The Democratic Party has once again suedUganda,Burundi,Rwanda,Kenya, andTanzaniain the East African court of justice. The details of the suit are as follows:
Reference No 2 of 2012,
The Democratic Party ——– Applicant
Versus
1. The Attorney General of Uganda (Sued in representative capacity)- 1st Respondent
2. The Attorney General ofKenya – 2nd Respondent.
3. The Attorney General ofBurundi – 3rd Respondent.
4. The Attorney General ofRwanda – 4th Respondent.
5. The Secretary General East African Community. – 5th Respondent.
The case filed by the Democratic Party through its Legal Adviser is for Declaratory Orders to all the respondent countries that non- deposit of a Declaration Infringes the Law as required under Article 5 of the African charter on Human and Peoples Rights and Art 34(6) of the Protocol of the Charter on Human and Peoples Rights for the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights, and the Vienna Convention on the Law of treaties 1969.
All the East African Countries Ratified the above Charter and Protocol but have not (The Respondents), Other than Tanzania, Deposited a Special Declaration submitting to the Competence of this Court to handle individual cases by Partner States Nationals and Rights NGOs with grievances to access this court as required by the above law.
Without Depositing the Declaration aforesaid only African Governments as State Parties have the audience of this court to hear their grievances on human rights violations although it’s more unlikely that governments have grievances on rights violations, in fact they are the biggest violators of rights making it look like the poacher turned game keeper.
It is for this reason that Democratic party Chief Legal Adviser Fred Denis Mukasa Mbidde of (Mbidde & Co Advocates) together with Justine Semuyaba of (Semuyaba, Yiga & Co Advocates) have jointly ,on behalf of the Party filed and will accordingly urgue this case at the East African Court of Justice sitting at Arusha.
This is going to be anEastAfricanLandmark case according to the Registry with a full BAR of East African Attorneys General sued in vicarious capacity.
The above case will go along way to reestablishUgandaandEast Africaon the Course of Integration based on the Rule of Law and Constitutionalism. East African Governments according to Rule 30 of the Rules of Procedure for the East African Court of Justice have Each 45 days within which to file their responses and the Applicant will then have 45 days within which to file rejoinders for the case to be set down for hearing and consequent determination.
By Mukasa Fred Mbidde
Chief Legal Adviser-DP
